on the broadcast tonight, chemical weapons in syria, suddenly the world has an urgent situation on its hands. the fear is, syria is going to use it against its own people. and the fight on breast cancer, the controversy on the life-saving drug, and how long women should take it. and 27 days to go when the fiscal cliff arrives, so why are so many members of the house going home when they're supposed to be working on it? and people showing up for others, right when they need it. nightly news begins now.

good evening, we begin tonight with an important story, details of which may sound very familiar to a lot of americans, given our history over the past few years in places like iraq. tonight, pentagon sources are telling nbc news syria is preparing chemical weapons for their possible use against the syrian people in the form of aerial bombs. it is believed this specific intelligence is the reason why president obama took a hard line against syria just a few days ago, warning them there would be consequences if these weapons were used. let's begin here tonight with the very latest. >> reporter: good evening, brian, u.s. officials tell us that the syrian military is poised tonight to use chemical weapons against its own people. and all it would take is the final order from syrian president assad.

as the fighting grows more intense and syrian rebels close in on damascus, the syrian regime has turned very desperate. u.s. officials tell nbc news the syrian military has now loaded the pre cursor for bombs, that could be dropped from dozens of fighter bombers. this week, u.s. intelligence detected a flurry of activity here, near homes. today, while u.s. officials confirm the precursor chemicals are loaded, they must still be mixed together to create the deadly gas. the alarm shook the world, including president obama and secretary of state hillary clinton issued strong warnings to syria's president assad, there would be strong consequences if he used chemical weapons. >> they would lose any sort of backing they had with china and

russia, in terms of blocking the vote. >> reporter: the chemical mix is devastating. iraq's saddam used it in 1988. u.s. officials stress tonight that as of now these weapons remain in the depots have not been loaded on to any planes, and that president assad has not given any orders to use them. but officials here concede if they does there is very little the outside world can do to stop it. >> well, there you have it, this complicates the chaos in the world, making for another difficult situation in the u.s. and others, our chief foreign affairs correspondent, andrea mitchell, is in washington. here we go again, the american public not anxious to hear about any u.s. military involvement anywhere else on the planet, using terms like weapons of mass

destruction, chemical weapons, what do we do? now you have the criminal weapons going back over a decade, but the stock pile explains why the president and hillary clinton warned bashar al-assad forcefully this week not to use the weapons. a warning that secretary clinton repeated at nato again today. >> our concerns that are increasingly desperate assad regime might turn to chemical weapons. or might lose control of them to one of the many groups that are now operating within syria. >> reporter: now officials say they believe that those warnings did work so far. they are concerned, though, about the rising influential extremist groups. so the state department is preparing to decision nature one group because of the close ties to al-qaeda in iraq.

still, secretary clinton announced they will take a big step, recognizing the main opposition group as the sole legitimate representative of the syrian people, even as they tighten the noose on assad. andrea, thank you, while we wish we had better news to report, with that in mind, the situation in egypt, the violence, the president fleeing the palace looks very familiar. the president today tried to urge the egyptians to settle their differences peacefully. our chief correspondent richard engel saw it firsthand, standing by in cairo tonight, good evening, richard. >> reporter: good evening, brian, the egyptian president, mohamed morsy, supporters of the muslim brotherhood want a strong president and want more islamic law. his opponents say the president is forcing an islamic agenda down their throat. and today, the two sides clashed. on the door step of egypt's

presidential palace, leading clashes, the fighting injured hundreds. the fighting is very fluid, sometimes the anti-morsy demonstrators, those right here will make advances just a few yards then get driven back. there are no police here, they are just two sides facing each other in the streets. as one side advances the other retreats. demonstrators kept police from the scene. there is still mistrust here, during the revolution of hosni mubarak. >> when the egyptian people go out again in the streets, they never go back. they must win, otherwise the muslim brotherhood will destroy egypt. >> reporter: a battle for the soul of the biggest country in the arab word. and tonight, brian, four of president morsy's 22 advisers

have resigned in protest, saying president morsy should do more to bring calm here. brian? >> richard engel back here tonight in a familiar hot spot in cairo. and the big story tonight has to do with breast cancer, and a drug already known so well to many women, tamoxifen, and taking it for a long period of time, we get the story from our chief correspondent robert bazell. >> reporter: today's findings should improve the outlook for many survivors, including this lady, who takes the common estrogen-blocking drug. >> the prices very low. >> reporter: the researchers showed that women who took t tamoxifen for five years had a third less chance of dying from

the disease, but the research found it was cut in half if they took it for ten. >> it couldn't be a chance finding, the study has nearly 7,000 women in 26 countries, so it is based on big numbers. >> reporter: she got her cancer diagnosis almost five years ago when she was pregnant with her daughter, julie. >> she knows mommy had cancer when she was in my stomach. >> reporter: like many who have the breast cancer, this is fuelled by the female hormone. after her surgery and radiation, doctors put her on tamoxifen, to reduce the chances of the cancer coming back. >> reporter: in the united states, women past menopause usually get the powerful blocking drugs. but the results mean, they say, that all women with the estrogen-positive tumors should get the drug for at least ten years. she is fine with her drug continuing. >> cancer is something i think

about every day, and just to keep taking it would be fine with me. there would be less of a chance to come back. >> reporter: it has possible side effects, from hot flashes to blood clots, and an increase of other cancers, but the studies show it is a huge benefit to save women's lives. robert bazell, nbc news, san antonio. our breast cancer specialist is with us tonight, at the md anderson center. she is joining us from san antonio, where she is attending a conference. and doctor, while there are those who choose to come off of tamoxifen, because the side effects are just too difficult, and now the advice is take it for longer. so that is controversial in your line of work? >> absolutely, although it is very well tolerated. for the majority of women that take it, but for a lot of the

patients i see it can cause hot flashes and the less common but very serious side effects of uterine cancer, and blood clots, and catacacs. >> but then you get into the complications of the medications. overall, though, the advice is try this if you can tolerate it? >> well, absolutely, we can't identify who is going to have what side effects. so we give the drug to our patient. and then if they have very bad side effects we can try other non-estrogen types of drugs to decrease the hot flashes. i've had very good results with acupuncture. but for a small group of women, the side effects can really wreak havoc with their lives.

so we may try shutting off their ovaries or even removing them to take out the risk of estrogen. >> thank you, doctor, for being with us tonight. there is some news on the economy and the jobs front tonight. citigroup announced it it's laying off 11,000 people, about 4% of its work force, innen effort to cut costs and increase profits. they're closing 44 branches as part of this. most of the job losses come from the consumer banking unit which deals with everyday banking transactions. and on a day we were given stunning views, from nasa, about the very same planet, we also learned as our very own anne thompson reports, the artic is continuing to break records, including greater melt of the ice sheet. it is unlikely, scientists say

that conditions can be reversed any time soon. still ahead for us with time running out on the way to a new deal. congress is running out of time, potentially a way to run the country off the fiscal cliff. and later, how kate middleton got caught up in a royal hoax while hospitalized in london. open enrollment ends friday, december 7th. so give unitedhealthcare a call today. consider a medicare advantage plan. it can combine doctor and hospital coverage with prescription drug coverage for as low as a zero dollar monthly premium. you only have until december 7th to enroll. call unitedhealthcare today.

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starts with arthritis pain and a choice. take tylenol or take aleve, the #1 recommended pain reliever by orthopedic doctors. just two aleve can keep pain away all day. back to the news. . here is some indication of how partisan and paralyzed washington is these days. it was big news this afternoon when the white house let it be known that the president and speaker john boehner had talked on the phone. but at the same time treasury secretary tim geithner told cnbc that president obama is prepared to take a dive off the so-called

fiscal cliff if republicans don't agree to take hikes on the richest americans. and so we welcome peter alexander, at the ranks of the white house correspondents, with a look at all of it. >> reporter: brian, good evening, on the north lawn, the phone call marks the first time speaker john boehner and the president spoke in a week, that is hardly something to celebrate, but they wouldn't characterize what they caused in the phone call as the country barrels towards the fiscal cliff. with no talks and no progress to avert the looming fiscal cliff, you could say the house has left the building, streaming out of the capitol. tomorrow's session cancelled. with only three work days left this year, they are often criticized. just 16 votes. across the country, rising frustration, americans asking why the holdup. and what will their taxes look like in 2013.

>> maybe instead of getting my sister two things, you give one thing, you have to give pause on what could happen next year. >> reporter: today, president obama and house republicans are locked in a politicalstair staredown. >> we can probably solve it in a week, it is not that tough, we need that breakthrough that says we need to do a balanced plan. >> although the president seems obsessed about raising taxes on you, we feel it is not the right direction to go. >> reporter: it comes down to a tug of war over taxes. the president's proposal, increasing rates on americans making more than $250,000, to raise 1.6 trillion over a decade. house speaker john boehner wants to cut the number in half. >> there are ways to limit deductions, close loopholes, and have the same people pay more of their money to the federal government. without raising tax rates. >> reporter: and the president today offered this warning to republicans. amid reports they may accept mr.

obama's plan to extend tax cuts for most americans while allowing them to go up for the richest, and start the fight all over again during debt limit talks early next year. >> that is a bad strategy for america. it is a bad strategy for your businesses. and it is not a game that i will play. >> reporter: and brian, tonight, the white house is preparing in case the country does go over that fiscal cliff, budget officials have asked all federal agencies for information that they need in case of possible plans in case of those automatic spending cuts that could go in place in just 27 days. >> peter alexander at the white house for us tonight. thank you. and up next, the loss today of a legend in american music. i put away money. i was 21, so i said, "hmm, i want to retire at 55." and before you know it, i'm 58 years old.

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♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >> the unmistakable sound of dave brubeck, his modern masterpiece, written in time when most of jazz was in 4-4 time. when his heart stopped beating, we lost a great musician and a nice man. he grew up in a household where radio was forbidden, his mother said if you want to listen to music you should play it. so he did, he first studied to be a veterinarian, be but gave it up to be a musician, he played in combat zones across europe. he toured the world with his group, his music caught fire. he was only the second jazz musician after louis armstrong, to appear on the cover of "time" magazine. he was honored at the kennedy center, and got to watch his own

sons perform music on stage. ♪ ♪ ♪ . dave brubeck, american master, was one day short of his 92nd birthday. and jack brooks has died, had was a student of texas, an enemy of richard nixon, attacked government waste all his life. he was pro labor, pro guns and pro district funds. he was in the vehicle when president kennedy was killed in dallas, he was among the giants in congress, over 42 combative years in the house of representatives. jack brooks was eighty-nine years old. and a prank phone call gets the attention in london and around the world this morning. two morning radio hosts had the bright idea to call the hospital

treating the pregnant duchess. they asked to speak to her, and unlikely as it may seem they got through to her nurse. and you're about to hear, the call sounded like a bad monty python sketch, with them doing an act of queen elizabeth. >> good morning. how may i help you? >> hello, i'm just after my granddaughter, kate, i want to see how her little stomach is going. >> she has had an uneventful night. >> you hate to hear that kind of thing. tonight the two radio hosts apologized. for the record, we're told that kate is indeed feeling better. when we come back here this evening. returning the favor to brave soul mates who helped to save a city already once. suddenly, she does something unexpected

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until they're back on their feet. they're getting help every day, they know what suffering is like because they have been there themselves. tonig tonight's stephanie gosk has more on first responders in new orleans, making a difference up north. >> reporter: starting the day after a hurricane is a physical and emotional job. firefighters from new orleans who lived through hurricane katrina six years ago remember it well. >> i know what the people up here are going through, they're like how am i going to get this? >> reporter: they also remembered that the new york fire department was on the door steps helping just days after the levees broke. this captain's house flooded up to the roof. >> that was the biggest thing. >> reporter: now the firefighters from new orleans want to repay the favor. >> any country, any state. it is a connection between the fire department. and new york is like our brother city. >> reporter: places like belle harbor, long island, need the help. the first floor of this house is

destroyed. he also lost a house in new orleans during katrina. are you like a storm magnet? what is going on here? >> a good friend in new orleans sent me a text message saying i have very strong hurrikarmr. >> reporter: firefighters helped in katrina, as well. >> the buildings are on fire, everybody runs out, they run in, here in a smaller scale they ran in to help me. >> reporter: like many here, he comes from a family of firefighters. his brother, greg, was killed on 911. which made coming to his house even more important for the team from new orleans. this is the day firefighters talk about, no matter where you're from, you talk about it. in very little time, the crew cleared out the water-logged first floor. but perhaps even more important than muscle was their message. >> it will get better. >> reporter: coming from new orleans's firefighters, it is just what new yorkers need to

hear. stephanie gosk, nbc news, belle harbor, long island. >> why they're called first responders. that is our broadcast on a wednesday night. thank you for joining us, i'm brian williams and of course we hope to see you right back here tomorrow evening. good night. mine was earned off vietnam in 1968. over the south pacific in 1943. i got mine in iraq, 2003. usaa auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation. because it offers a superior level of protection, and because usaa's commitment to serve the military, veterans and their families is without equal. begin your legacy, get an auto insurance quote.